In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, a substrate processing apparatus, which is called as a multi-chamber or a cluster tool, has been used. The multi-chamber or the cluster tool is configured to connect different kinds of processing modules, such as a film formation module for forming films by providing reaction gases to surfaces of semiconductor wafers (hereinafter, referred to as “wafer”) or a plasma treatment module for performing a surface treatment on the films formed on the surfaces of the wafers by using the plasma, to a common substrate transfer chamber. In this substrate processing apparatus, different kinds of processes are continuously performed by transferring the wafers to each of the processing modules sequentially.
The processing module for processing the wafers performs its operations based on programs called processing recipes in which processing orders or processing conditions are set. Further, besides the above-mentioned operations with respect to the wafers (hereinafter, referred to as “conditioning operations”), there is a need for other conditioning operations such as a cleaning operation for removing unnecessary films adhered on an interior of a processing container or a leak check operation for checking a vacuum state in the interior of the processing container.
In each of the processing modules, the conditioning operations have different contents, performing timings, or criteria to determine whether or not it is necessary to perform the operations. Further, in the same processing modules, setting conditions for the conditioning operation may be changed based on the processes to be performed with respect to the wafer. As a result, in order to freely change the setting conditions for the conditioning operations in the substrate processing apparatus having various kinds of the processing modules, a combination of items required to change the setting conditions may become substantial. Meanwhile, a method, which flexibly and easily sets the conditioning operations based on requests of each of the processing modules, is not suggested
For example, there is known a technology for performing a gas cleaning on a film formation chamber in which a film formation is performed in predetermined lot numbers. Further, there is also known a method of cleaning a substrate processing apparatus which is configured to change cleaning contents or performing timing based on process types. Herein, the performing timing in said method corresponds to the foregoing criteria to determine whether or not it is necessary to perform or the predetermined lot numbers in said technology. However, in the substrate processing apparatus having a plurality of processing modules, there is not known a specific method of setting different conditioning operations at each of the processing modules.